A truck driver has been charged with reckless driving after a single-truck wreck that left 20 pigs dead.
The wreck happened on Friday, December 4th at around 10:28 a.m. in Stafford County, Virginia.
According to CBS 17 News, the semi truck hauling livestock was traveling along Interstate 95 when it lost control and ran off the left side of the roadway, striking a barrier wall before jackknifing across the northbound lanes. The force of the impact ruptured the fuel tank and caught the cab of the truck on fire.
Firefighters responded to the scene and were able to quench the fire within 15 minutes. 58-year-old truck driver, David L. Ressler, sustained only a very minor injury in the accident, but the pigs he was hauling were not so lucky.
Of the 200 pigs in the trailer at the time of the incident, 20 were killed in the wreck, and six of those had to be euthanized on scene for injuries sustained in the wreck.
Virginia State Police have since charged Ressler with reckless driving.